The present invention relates to a hospital monitoring system, and more particularly, to hospital monitoring system for monitoring hospital personnel, a plurality of patient locations for patients, and associated devices.
Hospital staff, including doctors, nurses, physician assistants, orderlies, etc., provide patient care while the patient is undergoing treatment and/or therapy during a hospital visit. A number of systems have been developed to facilitate providing patient care, such as personnel locating systems, nurse call systems, bed status information systems, and patient monitoring devices. Details of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,019 (Bed Exit Detection Apparatus); U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,223 (Patient/Nurse Call System); U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,552 (Patient Detection System for a Patient-Support Device); U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,038 (Bed Status Information System for Hospital Beds); U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,412 (Patient/Nurse Call System); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,095 (Incontinence Detection Device), the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Additionally, co-pending U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 09/849,580, filed May 4, 2001, entitled “Patient Point of Care Computer System,” and Ser. No. 09/848,941, filed May 4, 2001, entitled “Remote Control For a Hospital Bed,” the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, also disclose systems that have been developed to facilitate providing patient care.
The systems disclosed above facilitate various patient alarms, such as a patient exiting a bed, an incontinence event, or an emergency call for a caregiver. Typically, a caregiver will enter the patient's room when responding to an alarm. However, the caregiver often must manually silence the alarm, adjust the room lighting, or shut off a television or radio prior to attending to the patient. This manual preparation of the working environment may distract the caregiver and further increases response time to critical alarms. The disclosure is directed toward the automatic silencing of such alarms and/or preparing the working environment when a responsive caregiver enters the patient's room. Further, the disclosure is directed toward preparing the working environment when an alarm is received. Further still, the disclosure is directed toward preparing the working environment when an alarm is received, subject to environmental and patient control overrides depending on the nature of the alarm and time of the alarm.
The system disclosed also provides for automatic lockouts of patient and environmental controls when the caregiver enters the room, regardless of the presence of an alarm. As a caregiver makes his or her rounds, the caregiver may need to tend to the patient's needs. Often a caregiver must ensure that patient activated controls are locked out during this time, as the patient may inadvertently activate a control and interfere with the caregiver's duties. Also disclosed is a system that provides for the automatic enablement of patient controls, bed controls, and/or environmental controls when a caregiver is in the room.
One illustrative embodiment prevents the status of bed lockouts from being changed without an authorized caregiver within the room. When the caregiver enters the room, the system receives a caregiver identification signal from a caregiver badge. After the system authenticates the identification signal, the system then permits the bed lockout status to be changed. The bed lockout controls prevent the patient on bed from actuating certain controls. These lockouts are typically actuated by pressing a button or a combination of two or more buttons on the bed to lock out various bed controls, environmental controls, or other functions.
Another embodiment is designed for use with beds which are movable from a generally flat bed position to a chair position. In this embodiment of the present invention, the bed is unable to move to a chair position unless an authorized caregiver is located within the room. Again, the system must receive and authenticate the identification signal from caregiver badge before the bed is permitted to move to the chair position.
In yet another embodiment, the status of patient environmental controls adjacent a bed is automatically altered when the caregiver enters the room. For example, in one embodiment the sound on a TV/radio device is muted and specific light sources are activated when the caregiver enters the room. A system receives the caregiver identification signal. After the system authenticates the identification signal, the system instructs the TV/radio device to mute all sound and the light source to activate specific lights. In another embodiment, the system locks out one or more of the environmental controls within the room once the control unit authenticates the identification signal from the caregiver badge. Therefore, the patient can no longer control the environmental functions such as, for example, the radio, television or lighting when an authorized caregiver is in the room.
According to the invention, a hospital monitoring system for monitoring hospital personnel, a plurality of patient locations for patients, and associated devices is disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of transmitters carried by hospital personnel, each transmitter periodically transmitting a transmitter signal unique to that transmitter; a plurality of receivers, each receiver corresponding to a patient location, the receivers receiving the transmitter signals and outputting a receiver signal; and a computer coupled to the associated devices, the computer configured to receive the receiver signals and determine the presence of hospital personnel in the patient locations, the computer further configured to alter device states based on the presence of hospital personnel.
Also according to the invention, a method of controlling devices in a patient location is provided. The method comprises the steps of associating the patient location to a patient; associating devices to the patient location; determining the presence of hospital personnel in the patient location; and altering the state of the devices based the presence of hospital personnel.
Also according to the invention, a hospital monitoring system for monitoring hospital personnel, a plurality of patient locations for patients, and associated devices is provided. The system comprises a locating and tracking system configured to locate and track hospital personnel located in the plurality of patient locations; a computer coupled to the associated devices and the locating and tracking system, the computer configured to determine the presence of hospital personnel in the patient locations from the locating and tracking system, the computer further configured to alter device states based on the presence of hospital personnel. The computer also includes a database, the database comprising a patient database, the patient database associated each patient with a patient location; a hospital personnel database, the hospital personnel database associating each hospital personnel with a caregiver or non-caregiver class, the hospital personnel database further associating hospital personnel with a patient; and an alarm database, the alarm database associating a plurality of alarms with the hospital personnel.
Additional features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrated embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.